Pandora’s box was officially opened back in November when it was announced that CHL players would be eligible to play in the NCAA for the 2025-26 season.
For many years, players on the CHL path were barred from playing the top level of college hockey south of the border due to the NCAA viewing the CHL’s three member leagues as professional.
After the rule change back in November, players across the WHL started to commit to playing in the NCAA following the completion of their WHL eligibility. Max Hildebrand (Bemidji State) and Niall Crocker (Ohio State) of the Prince Albert Raiders are two examples of this.
With the competitive nature of hockey at the college level, it was only a matter of time before schools attempted to recruit a significant player prior to the end of their CHL eligibility.
Swift Current’s Clarke Caswell will be taking his talents to Denver next season instead of returning to captain the Broncos for another season while Portland’s Diego Buttazoni is forgoing his last two seasons to attend UMass-Lowell next season.
Other players have announced commitments for future seasons including Saskatoon’s Cooper Williams who just completed his 16-year-old campaign for the Blades.
It’s hitting close to home too for the Prince Albert Raiders. According to the Hockey Commitments Twitter account, Ty Meunier is committed to Nebraska-Omaha for the 2026-27 campaign.
Depending on who you talk to, there’s rumours and innuendo about players all over the league talking to schools and who might be the next player to announce a college commitment for as soon as next season.
This column isn’t the place to name any names, but you can pretty much guarantee that any average, above average or elite CHL player is being approached by at least one school.
Coming into the offseason, player movement wasn’t just a possibility, it was inevitable. Nobody could have expected the shock waves that movement would have and what it could mean for one WHL club in particular.
It was confirmed on Friday by Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald that the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks had landed commitments of Cole Reschny and Keaton Verhoeff from the Victoria Royals for next fall.
Reschny is anticipated to be a first round NHL draft selection later this summer while Verhoeff could be a top five pick in 2026. Both players were key contributors to a Royals team that won a B.C. Division title last season and were expected to lead a Victoria squad that was a favorite to repeat as division champs on paper.
The Royals followed the blueprint for building a successful WHL team perfectly. They made the right picks at the top of the draft and put both of those players in positions to succeed and they both blossomed.
With the ages of Reschny, Verhoeff and the rest of the Royals roster, the best was still yet to come for that team despite falling to Spokane in the playoffs this past season. You have to feel for any fan of the Royals who have watched their team be lost in the wilderness for stretches lasting several years. All they can do is sit back and watch as two pillars of their franchise suit up south of the border next season.
You can’t blame Reschny, Verhoeff, Caswell, Buttazoni or any other player for taking advantage of the opportunities that are available to them. The new options and paths for players should be celebrated after years of the NCAA and CHL competing against one other.
The question many around the CHL will be asking is what can the league do to keep players in this new, ever changing environment. The big blue blood schools have massive support and with the NCAA permitting athletes to be compensated for their name, image and likeness (NIL), they’ll have purses that CHL teams can’t even dream of competing with.
In an interview on The Sheet with Jeff Marek podcast, QMJHL commissioner Mario Cecchini floated the idea of sponsoring possibilities for players in CHL markets when asked about the possibility of directly paying star players. Instead of players getting paid by the team directly, players would get compensated for sponsorship with local businesses.
That’s a good idea from Cecchini in theory, but how does that keep an even playing field for smaller markets? There’s only so many business dollars to go around in a market like Prince Albert or Swift Current.
The CHL is still in a good spot and some players have proven that the grass isn’t always greener on the NCAA side. Tyson Jugnauth and Alex Weiermaier both suited up for the Portland Winterhawks last season after spending some time in the college ranks at major schools.
Jugnauth spent two seasons at the University of Wisconsin posting 17 points in 45 games while Weiermaier had eight points in 31 games over parts of two seasons with the University of Denver Pioneers. Without their contributions, it’s unlikely Portland makes a run to the Western Conference Final last season.
Will more players take a page out of the Jugnauth/Weiermaier playbook and come back to the WHL if they don’t get the ice time at the college level? Or did they both simply join Portland because of the recruiting wizardry by Winterhawks general manager Mike Johnston and company?
You can recruit as many great players as you’d like, but last I checked you can only have five skaters and a goaltender on the ice at any given time.
Some questions players will have to ask themselves moving forward: Is it better for my development to stay in the CHL and be a top six/top pair contributor for my current team or take a risk and head to the NCAA with no guarantee of that ice time?
The winds of change are blowing across the hockey landscape and it’s only just begun.
sports@paherald.sk.ca
